Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning is a successful teaching strategy in which small teams, each with students
of different levels of ability, use a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of
a subject. Each member of a team is responsible not only for learning what is taught but also for
helping teammates learn, thus creating an atmosphere of achievement. Students work through the
assignment until all group members successfully understand and complete it.
Cooperative efforts result in participants striving for mutual benefit so that all group members:
• gain from each other's efforts. (Your success benefits me and my success benefits you.)
• recognize that all group members share a common fate. (We all sink or swim together
here.)
• know that one's performance is mutually caused by oneself and one's team members. (We
can not do it without you.)
• feel proud and jointly celebrate when a group member is recognized for achievement.
(We all congratulate you on your accomplishment!).

Why use Cooperative Learning?

Research has shown that cooperative learning techniques:
• promote student learning and academic achievement
• increase student retention
• enhance student satisfaction with their learning experience
• help students develop skills in oral communication
• develop students' social skills
• promote student self-esteem
• help to promote positive race relations

5 Elements of Cooperative Learning

It is only under certain conditions that cooperative efforts may be expected to be more
productive than competitive and individualistic efforts. Those conditions are:
1. Positive Interdependence
(sink or swim together)
• Each group member's efforts are required and indispensable for group success
• Each group member has a unique contribution to make to the joint effort because of his or
her resources and/or role and task responsibilities

2. Face-to-Face Interaction
(promote each other's success)
• Orally explaining how to solve problems
• Teaching one's knowledge to other
• Checking for understanding
• Discussing concepts being learned
• Connecting present with past learning

3. Individual &Group Accountability

( no hitchhiking! no social loafing)
• Keeping the size of the group small. The smaller the size of the group, the greater the
individual accountability may be.
• Giving an individual test to each student.
• Randomly examining students orally by calling on one student to present his or her
group's work to the teacher (in the presence of the group) or to the entire class.
• Observing each group and recording the frequency with which each member-contributes
to the group's work.
• Assigning one student in each group the role of checker. The checker asks other group
members to explain the reasoning and rationale underlying group answers.
• Having students teach what they learned to someone else.

4. Interpersonal & Small-Group Skills

• Social skills must be taught:
○ Leadership
○ Decision-making
○ Trust-building
○ Communication
○ Conflict-management skills

5. Group Processing
• Group members discuss how well they are achieving their goals and maintaining
effective working relationships
• Describe what member actions are helpful and not helpful
• Make decisions about what behaviors to continue or change
 Class Activities that use Cooperative Learning

1. Jigsaw - Groups with five students are set up. Each group member is assigned some unique
material to learn and then to teach to his group members. To help in the learning students across
the class working on the same sub-section get together to decide what is important and how to
teach it. After practice in these "expert" groups the original groups reform and students teach
each other. Tests or assessment follows.

2. Think-Pair-Share - Involves a three step cooperative structure. During the first step
individuals think silently about a question posed by the instructor. Individuals pair up during the
second step and exchange thoughts. In the third step, the pairs share their responses with other
pairs, other teams, or the entire group.

3. Three-Step Interview - Each member of a team chooses another member to be a partner.

During the first step individuals interview their partners by asking clarifying questions. During
the second step partners reverse the roles. For the final step, members share their partner's
response with the team.
 4. RoundRobin Brainstorming - Class is divided into small groups (4 to 6) with one person
appointed as the recorder. A question is posed with many answers and students are given time to
think about answers. After the "think time," members of the team share responses with one
another round robin style. The recorder writes down the answers of the group members. The
person next to the recorder starts and each person in the group in order gives an answer until time
is called.

5. Three-minute review - Teachers stop any time during a lecture or discussion and give teams
three minutes to review what has been said, ask clarifying questions or answer questions.

6. Numbered Heads Together - A team of four is established. Each member is given numbers
of 1, 2, 3, 4. Questions are asked of the group. Groups work together to answer the question so
that all can verbally answer the question. Teacher calls out a number (two) and each two is asked
to give the answer.

7. Team Pair Solo - Students do problems first as a team, then with a partner, and finally on
their own. It is designed to motivate students to tackle and succeed at problems which initially
are beyond their ability. It is based on a simple notion of mediated learning. Students can do
 more things with help (mediation) than they can do alone. By allowing them to work on
problems they could not do alone, first as a team and then with a partner, they progress to a point
they can do alone that which at first they could do only with help.

8. Circle the Sage - First the teacher polls the class to see which students have a special
knowledge to share. For example the teacher may ask who in the class was able to solve a
difficult math homework question, who had visited Mexico, who knows the chemical reactions
involved in how salting the streets help dissipate snow. Those students (the sages) stand and
spread out in the room. The teacher then has the rest of the classmates each surround a sage, with
no two members of the same team going to the same sage. The sage explains what they know
while the classmates listen, ask questions, and take notes. All students then return to their teams.
Each in turn, explains what they learned. Because each one has gone to a different sage, they
compare notes. If there is disagreement, they stand up as a team. Finally, the disagreements are
aired and resolved.

9. Partners - The class is divided into teams of four. Partners move to one side of the room. Half
of each team is given an assignment to master to be able to teach the other half. Partners work to
learn and can consult with other partners working on the same material. Teams go back together
with each set of partners teaching the other set. Partners quiz and tutor teammates. Team reviews
how well they learned and taught and how they might improve the process.
 Some Cooperative Learning strategies
There are some popular strategies that can be used with all students to learn content (such as
science, math, social studies, language arts, and foreign languages). However, they are
particularly beneficial to ELLs for learning English and content at the same time. Most of these
strategies are especially effective in teams of four:
1. Round Robin
Present a category (such as "Names of Mammals") for discussion. Have students take
turns going around the group and naming items that fit the category.
2. Roundtable
Present a category (such as words that begin with "b"). Have students take turns writing
one word at a time.
3. Writearound
For creative writing or summarization, give a sentence starter (for example: If you give
an elephant a cookie, he's going to ask for...). Ask all students in each team to finish that
sentence. Then, they pass their paper to the right, read the one they received, and add a
sentence to that one. After a few rounds, four great stories or summaries emerge. Give
children time to add a conclusion and/or edit their favorite one to share with the class.
4. Numbered Heads Together
Ask students to number off in their teams from one to four. Announce a question and a
time limit. Students put their heads together to come up with an answer. Call a number
and ask all students with that number to stand and answer the question. Recognize correct
responses and elaborate through rich discussions.
5. Team Jigsaw
Assign each student in a team one fourth of a page to read from any text (for example, a
social studies text), or one fourth of a topic to investigate or memorize. Each student
completes his or her assignment and then teaches the others or helps to put together a
team product by contributing a piece of the puzzle.
6. Tea Party
 Students form two concentric circles or two lines facing each other. You ask a question
(on any content) and students discuss the answer with the student facing them. After one
minute, the outside circle or one line moves to the right so that students have new
partners. Then pose a second question for them to discuss. Continue with five or more
questions. For a little variation, students can write questions on cards to review for a test
through this "Tea Party" method.
After each Cooperative Learning activity, you will want to debrief with the children by asking
questions such as: What did you learn from this activity? How did you feel working with your
teammates? If we do this again, how will you improve working together?
Other ideas
A simple way to start Cooperative Learning is to begin with pairs instead of whole teams. Two
students can learn to work effectively on activities such as the following:
1. Assign a math worksheet and ask students to work in pairs.
2. One of the students does the first problem while the second acts as a coach.
3. Then, students switch roles for the second problem.
4. When they finish the second problem, they get together with another pair and check
answers.
5. When both pairs have agreed on the answers, ask them to shake hands and continue
working in pairs on the next two problems.
Literature circles in groups of four or six are also a great way to get students working in teams.
You can follow these steps:
1. Have sets of four books available.
2. Let students choose their own book.
3. Form teams based on students' choices of books.
4. Encourage readers to use notes, post-its, and discussion questions to analyze their books.
5. Have teams conduct discussions about the book.
6. Facilitate further discussion with the whole class on each of the books.
7. Have teams share what they read with the whole class.
8. For the next literature circles, students select new books.

Students typically work in teams of four. This way, they can break into pairs for some activities,
and then get back together in teams very quickly for others. It is important, however, to establish
classroom norms and protocols that guide students to:
• Contribute
 • Stay on task
• Help each other
• Encourage each other
• Share
• Solve problems
• Give and accept feedback from peers

• Results of Use:
Cooperative learning has a considerable body of research validating its effectiveness.
Over the past 90 years 550 studies have been conducted comparing the relative
effectiveness of cooperative, competitive, and individualistic learning. Cooperative
learning consistently improves achievement and retention, creates more positive
relationships among students, and promotes students' psychological health and self-
esteem. We know more cooperative learning than we do about almost any other aspect of
teaching and learning.

• The Cooperative Learning Center has been a part of the College of Education at the
University of Minnesota for over 20 years. The funding has come from the Office of
Special Education, Department of Education, Office of Naval Research Department of
Defense, and the National Science Foundation.

• Future Directions:
Recent work has concentrated on moving on from cooperative classrooms to cooperative
schools and systems. Leading the Cooperative School is aimed at school administrators
and teacher leaders and details this next step from a school where "some teachers use
cooperative learning" to becoming a Cooperative School. Growing attention is being
given to the book, Active Learning: Cooperation in the College Classroom which
examines the use of cooperative learning in adult settings. Teaching Students to be
Peacemakers has become the focus of preventing and dealing with violence in the
schools. The Center is equally interested in the Creative Controversy material which
focuses on stirring up more intellectual conflict in classrooms.

• The current projects that may prove promising are related to assisting schools in Eastern
Europe to promote cooperative learning as one way to help prepare a next generation for
democracy and the free enterprise system. A new project is in collaboration with the
Disney Corporation and Stetson University to design the school and teacher academy for
the Celebration Community on Disney land in Orlando.
 • Key consultants:
Key consultants, trainers, writers in the field: Dr. Roger Johnson, Dr. David Johnson, Dr.
Edythe J. Hollubec. In addition, from the thousands of teachers and administrators who
have been trained in Cooperative Learning, have come about five hundred people who
have had Leadership Training and are teaching Cooperative Learning in their own areas.
This network of carefully selected people allows us to refer people who are seeking help
with cooperative learning to leaders in their own community or close by.

• Recommended Materials and Resources:

Roger and David Johnson. Cooperation, Competition: Theory and Research
Highly recommended: A review of more than 500 studies using meta-analysis techniques.
Interaction Book Company. 7208 Cornelia Dr. Edina, MN 55435. (612) 831-9500. 1989.

ENGLISH
IV
Ronquillo D. Castro